This year’s Top 25 Under 25 offered a unique case of the player pool remaining largely unchanged from 2023; Nick Suzuki had graduated from the top spot, but Ivan Demidov entered the organization and immediate slid into second place in the rankings. Only two other players — the next two pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, Michael Hage and Aatos Koivu slotted among the top 35 who weren’t ranked a year ago. The pool also remained the same size (when the vote began before the trade of Jordan Harris and the relinquishing of two players’ rights), so a direct comparison could be made from last year to this.
It’s always interesting to look at the players who made the largest moves from the previous summer’s rankings, especially now that the talent in the organization is the best it has been in a long time. We usually have an equal measure of big leaps up the order and drops to lower tiers for some prospects. This time around, prospects taking positive steps were the main storyline.
Biggest Rises
As several players at the NHL level made progress on a personal level, so to did many of the prospects, Three players who ranked in the 40s in 2023 made major advances, and the top five risers were players selected in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Florian Xhekaj (+22)
2023: #45 → 2024: #23
No prospect had a more impressive campaign than Florian Xhekaj in 2023-24, and only Adam Engström has ever seen a bigger increase over one year (28 places) than Xhekaj did by rising 22 spots from 45th to inside the Top 25.
He didn’t seem like a future NHLer when he was drafted in 2023, with the feeling being that the team just hoped for lightning to strike twice after brother Arber’s rapid ascent to an NHL roster spot. It turns out the scouting staff gets the last laugh in this case, because Florian not only nearly tripled his offensive totals from his draft season, but did so with time at the centre position.
Largest year-to-year rises
| Player | Rank (Year) | New Rank (Year) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adam Engström | 40 (2022) | 12 (2023) | 28 |
| Florian Xhekaj | 45 (2023) | 23 (2024) | 22 |
| Martin Réway | 33 (2013) | 14 (2014) | 19 |
| Cayden Primeau | 36 (2017) | 17 (2018) | 19 |
| Sven Andrighetto | 26 (2013) | 8 (2014) | 18 |
| Charles Hudon | 28 (2012) | 10 (2013) | 18 |
| Alexander Romanov | 26 (2018) | 9 (2019) | 17 |
| Filip Eriksson | 43 (2023) | 26 (2024) | 17 |
| Michael McNiven | 29 (2016) | 13 (2017) | 16 |
| Dustin Tokarski | 29 (2013) | 13 (2014) | 16 |
| Joshua Roy | 22 (2021) | 7 (2022) | 15 |
| Jake Evans | 35 (2015) | 20 (2016) | 15 |
He was rewarded for his great season in which he finished two goals back of the team scoring lead with three matches with the Laval Rocket. Now, despite only have two seasons of experience at the Junior level, he may be making the jump to professional hockey for a full season in the AHL.
Filip Eriksson (+17)
2023: #43 → 2024: #26
A solid but unspectacular year in the SHL for Filip Eriksson took off with a loan to HockeyAllsvenskan partway through the season. Doing everything but scoring in Sweden’s top league, opponents couldn’t keep him off the scoresheet when he dropped down to play in Nybro. He scored 10 goals and added 14 assists in just 21 games in the second tier. That performance slingshotted him back into the SHL for the post-season, and he was one of Växjo’s top players to end its post-season run.
The centreman has started off 2024-25 with three points in the opening two games of Champions Hockey League action, looking to carry momentum into the new SHL campaign and be a productive member of the team. He’s proving to be an excellent find by the scouting staff that grabbed him at 165th overall in 2023, and he could yet turn out to be one of the steals of the draft.
Bogdan Konyushkov (+14)
2023: #35 → 2024: #21
Bogdan Konyushkov seemed to possess too much talent to rank in the mid-30s last year, which led me to predict a major rise in 2024. It didn’t end up being the biggest one we witnessed, but rising 14 spots to a fairly lofty ranking of 21st is a feat.
The only thing that’s really missing from his game is good skating technique, and he’s still able to make an impact even at the KHL level with that limitation. The defenceman had 28 points in 65 games last year, and wore the C on rotation despite being a second-year player.
He’s currently averaging 19 minutes per game in the early going of the 2024-25 campaign, and is under contract for just one more season after this one. He crept up on Montreal’s group of second-pairing options in the countdown this year, and might join them with another productive year in Nizhny Novgorod.
Yevgeni Volokhin (+13)
2023: #46 → 2024: #33
We didn’t think a whole lot about a goaltender selected in the fifth round last season, especially since he was the third one the Canadiens added at the 2023 NHL Draft. Increasing his save percentage to .938 in his draft-plus-one season and improving that to .954 in the post-season made people take notice.
He’s likely still too low at 33rd with that quality of play in the Russian Junior league, so he could see another sizable leap in next year’s ranking. It’s going to be very difficult to improve on last season’s numbers, but finishing somewhere close to where he did will show a pattern of stellar play and boost his stock.
Jacob Fowler (+12)
2023: #23 → 2024: #11
Drafted in the second round in 2023, Jacob Fowler joined the Canadiens organization carrying the reputation of a winner. After a season that saw him win a gold medal with Team USA at the World Juniors and make it all the way to the NCAA championship game as a freshman, it’s hard to argue with that description.
Fowler worked on his technique to improve his positioning, and now relies less on scrambling to make highlight-reel saves. His mental toughness and focus were always features of his game, and now he’s added more stability to his positioning to place more confidence in his projection as an NHL starting goaltender.
Honourable Mentions (+7)
Jayden Struble had a great start to the 2023-24 season with Laval, and it wasn’t long before he was recalled by the Canadiens. He also had an exceptional opening few weeks with the NHL team, showing the potential he possesses. He didn’t maintain that form through the season, but showed he had the talent to provide some offence while playing a stable defensive game, and there’s a lot of faith in him putting in more consistent efforts going forward.
Oliver Kapanen had lost a place in the Top 25 in 2024 following an inconsistent year in Liiga. He was a more regular contributor for KalPa last season, and really hit his stride leading up to the playoffs and through the team’s post-season run. He ended up claiming our honour of the top European prospect in each of the final three months of the season. He has now signed with SHL club Timrå for 2024-25, but first we will see him in training camp as he looks to earn a spot on the Canadiens roster.
Sam Harris is still a long way from putting himself in the conversation for an NHL career, but a decent freshman season in the NCAA saw him rise from 48th to 41st. He posted 14 goals in 42 games, playing a role in the University of Denver’s run to a national championship. If he can climb over a few of the other NHL prospects on a deep Denver roster this season, he will rise a few more spots in 2025.
All 2024 Rises
| Player | 2023 Rank | 2024 Rank | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florian Xhekaj | 45 | 23 | 22 |
| Filip Eriksson | 43 | 26 | 17 |
| Bogdan Konyushkov | 35 | 21 | 14 |
| Yevgeni Volokhin | 46 | 33 | 13 |
| Jacob Fowler | 23 | 11 | 12 |
| Jayden Struble | 22 | 15 | 7 |
| Oliver Kapanen | 26 | 19 | 7 |
| Sam Harris | 48 | 41 | 7 |
| Logan Mailloux | 16 | 10 | 6 |
| Quentin Miller | 40 | 35 | 5 |
| Juraj Slafkovský | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| Daniil Sobolev | 53 | 49 | 4 |
| Arber Xhekaj | 17 | 14 | 3 |
| Luke Tuch | 34 | 31 | 3 |
| Luke Mittelstadt | 42 | 39 | 3 |
| Jared Davidson | 36 | 34 | 2 |
| Lane Hutson | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| Blake Biondi | 47 | 46 | 1 |
| Joe Vrbetic | 49 | 48 | 1 |
Biggest Drops
Riley Kidney (-10)
2023: #19 → 2024: #29
There weren’t many substantial drops this year, but Riley Kidney’s fall from 19th to four spots removed from the official Top 25 was the largest. After a very strong final season in the QMJHL in which he produced 110 points in 60 regular-season games and another 22 in 13 playoffs contests, there was hope that his playmaking could carry over to the pros.
Finishing with twice as many penalty minutes as points wasn’t the vision for his first season with the Laval Rocket. He ended up 13th on the team’s scoring list. He didn’t show signs of figuring things out as the year went on either, with just eight points from the beginning of January to the end of the season. It’s going to take an impressive performance this season for him to make his way back into the Top 25, where he enjoyed a place for the previous three years.
Ty Smilanic (-9)
2023: #41 → 2024: #50
Ty Smilanic’s struggles with mental health were revealed while he was in college, cited as a reason for his transfer from Quinnipiac to the University of Wisconsin. Last season he chose to end his university career and play professionally, joining the ECHL’s Lions de Trois-Rivières.
His season ended with one goal and six assists after 31 games played. At 50th in the 54-player ranking, he’s about as far from an NHL position as you can get, and even a career in professional hockey is in question after last season. He is currently without a contract to play in 2024-25.
Sean Farrell (-7)
2023: #15 → 2024: #22
There was some concern when Sean Farrell had a difficult stint in the NHL to end the 2022-23 season, but the hope was that it was just too great a step for him at the end of quite a long college schedule. Unfortunately, the struggles continued in the AHL, and there’s now legitimate concern that his size is going to hold him back.
To become an NHL player, he will need to get stronger and more committed to working pucks off the boards, something he was able to do in his second season at Harvard. He’s heard all about how his path to the NHL will be difficult being a 5’9″ player, and we’ll soon see what he’s come up with as an answer to those criticisms when the 2024-25 season kicks off.
Justin Barron (-7)
2023: #11 → 2024: #18
It says a lot about the state of the organization that a player who has almost 100 games of NHL experience ranks 18th in the countdown, But that’s still a lot lower than his placement at 11th last summer. A good 39-game stint in the 2022-23 NHL season that saw him contribute 15 points came with a move down from sixth to 11th, then seven goals and six assists in 48 games last year dropped him seven more places this time around.
It’s not that Barron is doing anything particularly wrong to experience this slide. It’s more that he appears to be running in place while other players, especially defencemen, round out their games and earn better projections as top-four options for the Canadiens. He was passed by an entire group of blue-liners who show more promise than the one-dimensional offensive game he’s displayed so far. To re-establish himself among a deep defence pool, he’ll either need to considerably increase his offensive output or show progress on the defensive side of the puck.
Emil Heineman (-6)
2023: #21 → 2024: #27
The other player who lost a spot in the countdown was Emil Heineman, another forward who played the season in the AHL. He joined the Rocket late in the 2022-23 season and scored seven goals in 11 games, seemingly setting himself up for a great first full campaign in North America. Despite playing 48 games for Laval and getting four games with the Canadiens, he posted 15 goals.
It wasn’t bad production for a first-year player, but far from the promise of last year’s output, and not enough to hang onto a place when his shot is the element that defines his game. He will get to play under new coach Pascal Vincent this season, and hopefully make more of an impact on the scoreboard in the final year of his entry-level contract.
All 2024 Drops
| Player | 2023 Rank | 2024 Rank | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riley Kidney | 19 | 29 | -10 |
| Ty Smilanic | 41 | 50 | -9 |
| Sean Farrell | 15 | 22 | -7 |
| Justin Barron | 11 | 18 | -7 |
| Emil Heineman | 21 | 27 | -6 |
| Adam Engström | 12 | 16 | -4 |
| William Trudeau | 27 | 30 | -3 |
| Jordan Harris | 14 | 17 | -3 |
| Xavier Simoneau | 30 | 32 | -2 |
| Filip Mesar | 18 | 20 | -2 |
| Owen Beck | 10 | 12 | -2 |
| Kaiden Guhle | 4 | 6 | -2 |
| Jack Smith | 52 | 53 | -1 |
| Emmett Croteau | 51 | 52 | -1 |
| Dmitri Kostenko | 50 | 51 | -1 |
| Rhett Pitlick | 39 | 40 | -1 |
| Kirby Dach | 3 | 4 | -1 |
| Cole Caufield | 2 | 3 | -1 |
